


Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

by jujitsuelf



Category: The Losers (2010), The Losers (Comic), The Losers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Motorbikes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-27
Updated: 2013-09-27
Packaged: 2017-12-27 18:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/982116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujitsuelf/pseuds/jujitsuelf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt fill for - 'any - any - zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer – All publicly recognizable characters, settings etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended
> 
> ****
> 
> Prompt left by paceisthetrick over at fic_promptly
> 
> ****
> 
> Thanks for 3white_mage3 for the read-through and for stopping me using a truly terrible line.

Cougar didn’t ask for much. A roof over his head, food on a fairly regular basis, alcohol when he felt like it and sex as and when the mood took him. But he’d happily forego any and all of those things in order to provide his Baby with a secure garage for the night.

Cougar’s Baby was a 1998 Ducati 916 motorcycle. When she first nosed her way out of the factory, she’d been gleaming red. Cougar decided that red was in fact a little over the top, they were in the USA after all, not Italy, and had her resprayed a deep, inky black.

He wasn’t a man given to getting attached to inanimate objects. Sentimentality didn’t go with his job, a sniper couldn’t afford to be overly invested in anything. But as far as his Baby was concerned, he was perfectly happy to admit that he loved her to death.

He also loved Jake Jensen, but in a different, infinitely more carnal way. At least his Baby never spouted psycho babble at him in the middle of the night or tried to hack into NASA just for the fun of it. Neither did she make him worry constantly about what kind of trouble she could be talking herself into. Jake could find trouble with his eyes shut and both hands tied behind his back.

Still, Cougar really did love Jake, but he only thought about that when he was alone. It was slightly frightening to admit that he had feelings for another real-life human person. Loving a bike was safer.

Jensen didn’t quite understand the love a man could bear for his motorcycle. Considering he cheerfully admitted that his computers featured in his jerk-off fantasies, Cougar thought he was being a little narrow-minded.

“But it’s just a bike,” Jensen said, leaning up against the garage wall.

Cougar didn’t deign to answer. His Baby had been standing outside for weeks and it was high time she had a cozy place to spend the night. Clay had only just managed to acquire a new place for the whole team to call home, they’d all been sharing cramped quarters and tempers were a little frayed.

“I don’t get how you can spend hours tinkering with it. How much can you change on a bike?” Jensen’s forehead creased into a frown.

“A lot,” Cougar growled, carefully taking off the seat and preparing to give his Baby a thorough clean.

He’d never tell anyone, but messing about with the bike gave him a sense of peace he rarely found elsewhere. Just lovingly cleaning and polishing the fuel tank and fairing until they shone made him remember what it was like to have pride in something other than his skill on the range. The engine didn’t need any fiddling with but it was nice to know how to do it, just in case he was ever stranded in the middle of nowhere with an oil leak and no Pooch nearby to help out. Or at least that was his plausible excuse.

“I don’t get it,” Jensen said, shaking his head. “It’s just something to get you from A to B. How can you be so attached to it?”

Cougar pursed his lips. For saying his IQ was sky-high, Jake was dumb as far as understanding other people went.

“She’s not just a machine,” he said evenly. “She’s...I don’t know. Special. Different.” He glanced at Jake. “How do you feel about that custom games platform you made? Is that just a heap of circuit boards and wires?”

“Hell, no,” Jake cried. “That is a work of art and it’s only a matter of time before Sony and Microsoft come knocking at my door begging me to tell them all my secrets.”

“So you’re proud of it?”

“Damn right I’m proud of it,” Jake nodded emphatically.

Cougar looked at him for a minute, then glanced at the bike, then back at Jake. After a second, Jake grinned.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re proud of her like I’m proud of Angelica. Each to their own.”

“Smart boy,” Cougar muttered, crouching down to inspect the rear tire.

Jake moved to stand next to him, then sat down cross-legged on the concrete floor. “Looks like a tire to me. Are you expecting to find the meaning of life written somewhere in the rubber?”

Cougar rolled his eyes.

“You know,” Jake’s lips brushed Cougar’s ear. “This garage is really private.” Cougar felt Jake’s mouth curve into a smile. “Would your Baby be offended if I borrowed you for a while?”

Cougar flicked a tiny pebble out of the tire’s tread pattern, then looked sideways at Jake. “I don’t think she’d mind.”

Jake patted the fuel tank and spoke to the bike. “Good girl. I’ll send him back soon, okay? Daddy and Uncle Jake need sexy time.”

“Jake,” Cougar groaned, but smiled. “Not in front of Lucia.”

“You named your bike Lucia?”

“Do not start with me.”

Jake smiled again. “I think it’s kind of hot.”

Then he reached for Cougar and for a while everything was all about hot, wet mouths and slippery hands and cleverly-hidden condoms being produced from pockets.

Even though he’d never admit it, Cougar did fleetingly think just before he came that maybe, just maybe, Jake was hotter than his Baby.


End file.
